Thursday, July 20, 2017

Freya Crawshaw - London Salesforce Women in Tech User Group

This blog is part of a blog series to highlight Salesforce Community Champion, from user group leaders, developer group leaders, and members from around the world #OhanaIn this blog, I would like to introduce one of the leaders from the United Kingdom, Freya Crawshaw, co-leaders of London Salesforce Women in Tech User Group.

How do you become WiT group leader? and what made you interested in accepting the role as group leader? I first attended a Salesforce User group back in 2013 and met Jennifer Laing, who at the time was setting up the Scotland Women in Tech User Group, I jumped at the chance to join other women for a cause I was passionate about.

When I moved to London in 2015, I immediately got in touch with Jodi, who was at the time found the London Women in Tech group. She invited me to co-lead, 8 months later along with Louise and we’re now an unstoppable force.

How often your group meetup?We try to meet at least once a month, we have lots of User Groups in London so it’s great to be able to have joint meet ups and bring our members together.

How long have been your group established?The user group has been up and running since September 2015. Our first big event was in May 2016 at Salesforce Tower where we had 126 Women in Tech and allies attend for a panel session and preview of the Stemettes documentary.

How big is your user group member, and the number of members attend the meetup in average?We hold lots of different types of meetups so or numbers vary month to month. Our evening with Ladies who Salesforce was the biggest at 126, we hold Saturday brunch meetings where we have roughly about 15 spaces. An average meetup has around 50 people.

What do you love being WIT group leader?I love bringing people together over a shared connection. That’s the driving motivation for me as a User Group leader – build a safe space for people to come and be themselves.

What do the challenges become a group leader and how to overcome it?Getting the location, sponsor, and people together all in one place can be a logistical challenge with a full-time job and a personal life, it isn’t always easy to find that balance of time which is important.

Oh, and if it’s sunny in London people would rather be outside (perhaps we move our meetups to the park when it is sunny) – we get about a 50% dropout rate here.

Tell us what is unique about your WIT groupWe’ve had two speakers who have been awarded MBE’s and one who has received an OBE in the Queen’s honors list. We’ve also had a Paralympic Gold medalist.

Share us tips that make your group successOur biggest success? Mixing it up! We keep a mix of formal and informal meetings – our August 2017 meet up might even be a User Group first! Follow us on @LondonSFDCWiT to find out what we got up to.

What would like to see your group in the future? I’d love to see our User Group come together more outside our monthly meetings. We’re already seeing some of that, but I want to keep the conversation going, for people to know they can reach out on any other day of the month. That’s what’s in my master plan for the rest of the year.

One last thing you would like to share with the communityAt our WiT group, everyone is welcome. It isn’t just for Women; in fact, we love for our allies to join us in conversation. We can only make a change if we come together.

Simplysfdc comment: thanks for sharing London WIT group, love to hear you guys have varieties of contents and speakers. Having a meetup in the park, why not????